Built heritage conservation in Transylvania: applications for the 15th cohort

Pre-registration is open now and closes on 1 September 2026. The Transylvania Trust is recruiting the fifteenth cohort of its postgraduate programme in the protection and rehabilitation of built heritage — the course it has run at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca since October 1998, and through which more than 550 people have passed.

This is not a summer school. It is a two-year professional qualification, running from October 2026 to July 2028, taught in modules: seven or eight conference blocks a semester plus an examination session, every second week, on Fridays and Saturdays from 09:00 to 20:00. The total is 604 hours, of which 480 are theory and 124 are practical work carried out on live rehabilitation sites, alongside study trips.

Who it is for

Architects, civil engineers, art historians, archaeologists and other graduates. Beyond the shared general subjects, students take optional modules matched to their own first discipline, so an engineer and an art historian follow the same programme without being taught the same things.

The teaching staff are practitioners and academics from Romania, Hungary and Germany — university professors, theorists, and the people who actually research, design and execute rehabilitation works, together with inspectors from the heritage protection offices. Where a lecturer teaches in a foreign language, simultaneous translation is provided.

What you leave with

Graduates who complete the final dissertation and pass the professional competence examination receive a certificate of professional competence recognised by the Romanian Ministry of Education, in accordance with Law 422/2001 on the protection of historic monuments. Since 2020 the programme has operated under Ministry Order MEN no. 4750 of 12 August 2019.

Dates, fees and how to apply

• Pre-registration — until 1 September 2026, through the form linked from the Trust’s announcement
• Admission — online, 7 to 21 September 2026, on the admissions platform of the Faculty of History and Philosophy at Babeș-Bolyai University: 7–12 September to register, 15–19 September to confirm the place
• Course — October 2026 to July 2028
• Fee — 3,200 RON per year, payable in four instalments
• Programme officer — Eke Zsuzsanna, at the Transylvania Trust

The place it comes from

The Transylvania Trust Foundation was established in 1996 to work for the conservation, professional rehabilitation and long-term sustainability of the built environment of Transylvania. Its best-known undertaking is the rescue of Bánffy Castle at Bonțida, the great baroque residence outside Cluj-Napoca that was burned in 1944 and left to decay for half a century; the Trust’s Built Heritage Conservation Training Centre works on the site itself, which is how students end up learning lime mortar and timber repair on a monument rather than in a classroom.

Where to look: the full announcement, with the admission calendar and the required documents, is published by the Transylvania Trust; the university’s postgraduate admissions calendar is on the Faculty of History and Philosophy site.

Source: Transylvania Trust — announcement of the 15th cohort of the Professional Training and Development Programme in the Protection and Rehabilitation of Built Heritage (structure, hours, dates, fee, admission calendar, legal basis, number of graduates); Transylvania Trust — About (foundation year and mission). Figures and dates are those published by the Trust; confirm with them before applying.